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I am a big fan of lightweight horns and mouthpieces. They always seem to respond faster to me. I just played a Greenhoe horn that had both types of valve caps and I really dig the lighter cap. Does anyone make something like this for tuba? Would you even need the lexan part over the valve? Could you just cut away the inner part to a normal valve cap to get this effect?

Thank you in advance.

KiltieTuba wrote:Have you used heavy-weight caps?

I don't think there is any necessity for lightweight caps on a tuba. I mean, you're, more often than not, sitting down... so why have lighter caps?

Yes I have used heavy caps. They seem, to me, to make the horn more dead sounding (not as colorful) and not respond as fast. The reason is not for just cutting down weight but to make a horn respond quicker. My Alexander 151 Tenor tuba is much lighter than any compensating euphonium I have ever held and it also responds much quicker. On that horn if I change out the long nickel silver flat whole step slide for the brass half step slide it also changes the response of the horn. I feel that weight has a lot to do with how a horn plays. Willson tubas are designed really well but they are so heavy. I think if they were made lighter they would be much more enjoyable to play. Would light weight caps make a huge difference for four piston one rotor horns? Most likely not a huge change. However, I feel that on a five or six rotor valve horn it could be a notable difference in response. Faster response is the goal.